Salmonella Client and Marler Clark Attorney on GMA this morning

Susanna Cox used to feed her two boys Wal-Mart’s Great Value store-brand peanut butter three times a week. Then they started getting sick: stomach aches, diarrhea and fevers. The kids were suffering from the classic symptoms of salmonella poisoning. “I watched them get sicker and sicker,” Cox said. “It was horrible. I laid there and cried with them.” Cox and her husband are now suing Conagra, which owns a plant that processes some jars of Great Value and Peter Pan peanut butter.

Cox’s attorney, Drew Falkenstein, an associate at Marler Clark said, “It’s important to make sure that sick people or injured people are compensated for what they’ve been through, otherwise there would be no incentive for these companies to change their ways.”

Although the Food and Drug Administration is urging families to throw out all Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter bought since May, and Conagra is urging consumers to send in the lids off the jars, we suggest that consumers have the peanut butter tested first. We also suggest that people who are still ill seek medical attention and request a stool culture for salmonella. For more information about salmonella, see www.about-salmonella.com and for the status of salmonella litigation, see www.salmonellalitigation.com. As of 11:30 we have been contacted by nearly 1,750 people by phone or email.

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Amanda Rogers

My five year old daughter and myself are overcoming a week from hell. For over a week now, my daughter has been severly ill with, what her pediatrician thought, was a virus. My daughter was running high fever, sometimes peaking 104 degrees, severe diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pains and cramping, and dizzy spells sometimes resulting in fainting. After a couple of days of these symptoms going on, I contacted her pediatrician. The office wouldn’t even see her because they said it was nothing more than a virus floating around. What I couldn’t figure out was why no one else in our house, including our 18 month old, caught this virus. Just a day prior to my daughter coming down with this mysterious “illness”, I had purchased a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter. It wasn’t until Thursday morning that my husband called me at work and told me of the recall. I immediately went home and checked the jar, and sure enough, it was the tainted serial number. The worst part, was that I had been continuously giving my daughter the peanut butter throughout her illness trying to give her something with protein to give her a little energy. Not knowing that I was only making it worse. That would explain why she kept her symptoms and high fever even after being given over the counter products to bring it down. I called her pediatrician and was told to take her directly to the emergency room. She tested for Salmonella, just as we had suspected. The attending E.R physician went ahead and tested her for every possible illness that could mimic those symptoms, just so that no one could come back later and say that she was mis-diagnosed. All the other tests came back negative- no surprise. She was given a strong antibiotic to help with the exposure and flush out her kidneys. We did have to return again the next evening because my daughter suffered from severe dehydration. She is already tiny and petite for her age, and lost over 5 pounds in less than a week from the salmonella. I have never seen her in that state. She went for over 24 hours without using the bathroom, and had to be carried if she needed to move. She was completely lethargic, and at times it was almost impossible to get her to wake up from sleeping. I have never been so scared for my own child. Her face was sunken in, and she had black circles under her eyes. You could feel and see the bone structure surrounding her eyes from the loss of fluids. No one else in our household eats peanut butter except for her. And she was the only one who got sick. She missed an entire week from school, and I had to miss several days from my new job to take care of her. She is still weak, sometimes complaining of a tummy ache, and still has diarrhea, although not as severe as it was at first. Her fever has finally gone away, but she is still having trouble trying to urinate. My daughter is now terrified of food. I’m not making this up. It is a daily and nightly battle just to get her to eat anything, trying to convince her that other food isn’t dangerous. I’m at my wit’s end with this whole situation. Can you please tell me what steps I need to take in this situation??? I would greatly appreciate it.

Amanda Rogers

My five year old daughter and myself are overcoming a week from hell. For over a week now, my daughter has been severly ill with, what her pediatrician thought, was a virus. My daughter was running high fever, sometimes peaking 104 degrees, severe diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pains and cramping, and dizzy spells sometimes resulting in fainting. After a couple of days of these symptoms going on, I contacted her pediatrician. The office wouldn’t even see her because they said it was nothing more than a virus floating around. What I couldn’t figure out was why no one else in our house, including our 18 month old, caught this virus. Just a day prior to my daughter coming down with this mysterious “illness”, I had purchased a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter. It wasn’t until Thursday morning that my husband called me at work and told me of the recall. I immediately went home and checked the jar, and sure enough, it was the tainted serial number. The worst part, was that I had been continuously giving my daughter the peanut butter throughout her illness trying to give her something with protein to give her a little energy. Not knowing that I was only making it worse. That would explain why she kept her symptoms and high fever even after being given over the counter products to bring it down. I called her pediatrician and was told to take her directly to the emergency room. She tested for Salmonella, just as we had suspected. The attending E.R physician went ahead and tested her for every possible illness that could mimic those symptoms, just so that no one could come back later and say that she was mis-diagnosed. All the other tests came back negative- no surprise. She was given a strong antibiotic to help with the exposure and flush out her kidneys. We did have to return again the next evening because my daughter suffered from severe dehydration. She is already tiny and petite for her age, and lost over 5 pounds in less than a week from the salmonella. I have never seen her in that state. She went for over 24 hours without using the bathroom, and had to be carried if she needed to move. She was completely lethargic, and at times it was almost impossible to get her to wake up from sleeping. I have never been so scared for my own child. Her face was sunken in, and she had black circles under her eyes. You could feel and see the bone structure surrounding her eyes from the loss of fluids. No one else in our household eats peanut butter except for her. And she was the only one who got sick. She missed an entire week from school, and I had to miss several days from my new job to take care of her. She is still weak, sometimes complaining of a tummy ache, and still has diarrhea, although not as severe as it was at first. Her fever has finally gone away, but she is still having trouble trying to urinate. My daughter is now terrified of food. I’m not making this up. It is a daily and nightly battle just to get her to eat anything, trying to convince her that other food isn’t dangerous. I’m at my wit’s end with this whole situation. Can you please tell me what steps I need to take in this situation??? I would greatly appreciate it.

Amanda Rogers

My five year old daughter and myself are overcoming a week from hell. For over a week now, my daughter has been severly ill with, what her pediatrician thought, was a virus. My daughter was running high fever, sometimes peaking 104 degrees, severe diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pains and cramping, and dizzy spells sometimes resulting in fainting. After a couple of days of these symptoms going on, I contacted her pediatrician. The office wouldn’t even see her because they said it was nothing more than a virus floating around. What I couldn’t figure out was why no one else in our house, including our 18 month old, caught this virus. Just a day prior to my daughter coming down with this mysterious “illness”, I had purchased a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter. It wasn’t until Thursday morning that my husband called me at work and told me of the recall. I immediately went home and checked the jar, and sure enough, it was the tainted serial number. The worst part, was that I had been continuously giving my daughter the peanut butter throughout her illness trying to give her something with protein to give her a little energy. Not knowing that I was only making it worse. That would explain why she kept her symptoms and high fever even after being given over the counter products to bring it down. I called her pediatrician and was told to take her directly to the emergency room. She tested for Salmonella, just as we had suspected. The attending E.R physician went ahead and tested her for every possible illness that could mimic those symptoms, just so that no one could come back later and say that she was mis-diagnosed. All the other tests came back negative- no surprise. She was given a strong antibiotic to help with the exposure and flush out her kidneys. We did have to return again the next evening because my daughter suffered from severe dehydration. She is already tiny and petite for her age, and lost over 5 pounds in less than a week from the salmonella. I have never seen her in that state. She went for over 24 hours without using the bathroom, and had to be carried if she needed to move. She was completely lethargic, and at times it was almost impossible to get her to wake up from sleeping. I have never been so scared for my own child. Her face was sunken in, and she had black circles under her eyes. You could feel and see the bone structure surrounding her eyes from the loss of fluids. No one else in our household eats peanut butter except for her. And she was the only one who got sick. She missed an entire week from school, and I had to miss several days from my new job to take care of her. She is still weak, sometimes complaining of a tummy ache, and still has diarrhea, although not as severe as it was at first. Her fever has finally gone away, but she is still having trouble trying to urinate. My daughter is now terrified of food. I’m not making this up. It is a daily and nightly battle just to get her to eat anything, trying to convince her that other food isn’t dangerous. I’m at my wit’s end with this whole situation. Can you please tell me what steps I need to take in this situation??? I would greatly appreciate it.

Donna Frawley

Hi, I have a contaminated brand of Peanut butter and my daughter ate it last week and was sick for 5 days. She ate the sanwiche on Friday and we were going out of town. She became violently ill on Saturday afternoon, throwing up, diarea , fever, dizzi and stomach pains. We were stuck in the hotel room all weekend sick. By Monday the throwing up had stopped and she was still sick (tired and weak) until Friday. I just found out about this. I called the peanut butter company and read the numbers. They said it has salmonella to throw it out. But I did not.Both the peanut butter company and her Pediatrician said it is out of her system by now.

About Bill Marler

Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury and products liability attorney. He began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.